Anna and Heidi Explore

Vietnam blew us away, everyday was an adventure and we're sad to have left. After a slightly extended and traumatic stay in Hong Kong (visa issues!) we arrived in the chaotic and crazy city of Hanoi. We stayed in the Old quarter where you cant move for fear of motorbikes running you over and Bia Hoi (draft beer) is 10p a glass on the street corners. Obviously we spent most of our time on these street corners passing the hot and sunny time away in child size plastic chairs and nibbling on the odd kebab.
A cultural visit on an over night train took us to a mountain region near the chinese border to a town called Sapa. We spent three amazing days trekking through Bamboo forest and teetering on the edges of thousands (literally) of Rice Paddies. After our first day of trekking we arrived at our home stay in the village of Lao Cai where we stayed with a Han tribe family. To rejuvenate ourselves after the long trek we went for a slightly dangerous swim in the river - almost being washed away by the strong current and heavy storm that had just started! The six of us in our group and our guide Chung who was from the 'Black Mhong' tribe all helped to cook a delicious feast of spring rolls, and various chicken and vegetable dishes, and our hosts insisted we wash it down with several shots of rice wine, before we knew it the karaoke had begun!! (We found out the next morning that all the other groups staying in surrounding homes in the village had heard us, how embarrassing!) After the rain the second day of trekking proved more difficult to manage the muddy tracks, so a few bruises later we arrived at an amazing waterfall, we were able to walk half way across it to appreciate the stunning view. The tribes we saw and met we're Black Mhong, Red Mhong and Han, and that wasn't all of them. Their clothes we're truley beautiful, many layers all hand made and hand decorated with a cross stitch style to make each tribe and then each member individual. Sapa is one of the few remaining places where they still wear their tribal clothes, and not just for the tourists. We we're also lucky enough to be there on a Saturday when the 'Love Market' takes place, all the local tribes people meet and dance near the church in Sapa town and a couple gets together by the men throuwing an object into the air and the a woman catches it, this is enough for them to have babies together (but does not require a commitment like marriage!) From beggining to end of our three days we never spent more than two foot away from a tribes woman trying to chat us up so that we would buy some of their handicrafts, although beautiful we would have spent our entire travelling budget from the sheer number of them and the way they hassled you! We left Sapa tired, our purses a lot lighter and having had the best few days of our trip so far.
We returned to Hanoi for a brief shower before hopping on a bus to Halong Bay. Our home for the next few days was a junk boat cruisng round Halong Bay in the South China Sea (also when the devastating earthquake happened in China, we had a lucky escape, especially since only two weeks earlier we had been climbing mountains in the Sichuan Province). The landscape was made up of thousands of limestone karsts jutting from the clear green sea, we stopped for some kitsch cave exploration and swimming (only brief due to jellies) and a first for both of us - sea kayaking. Going off on our own we explored the floating fishing villages and almost managed to ground ourselves on some rocks! The fishermen had some really cool fish, squid, crab, catfish and a prehistoric shelled number - no idea of its name. We also managed another trek on Cat Ba Island, to one of the highest Karst peaks, through rainforest and narrowly avoiding a snake...our guide reasuringly informed us he didn't know if it was venomous! Cat Ba Island was amazing and the landscape made us feel like we we're in 'Lost'! A short stop on Monkey Island which was quite far out to sea in the Bay was like setting foot on a deserted island.

After returning to Hanoi once again we hopped on a (supposedly) sleeper bus down the coast to Hue ('supposedly' sleeper because the beds are long enough for children and you have to put your feet in a box which is restricting and does not induce sleep!) Hue was a lovely small town with cheap acomodation and many ancient tombs and pagoda's which we explored solo on motorbikes. We also stumbled upon an incense making village, so smelt like cinnamon for the restof the day. We stayed there a few days to chillout after our fun filled week all over the north. Next on the agenda was Hoi An, the UNESCO listed cultural town on the Thu Bon River. We ventured into a tailors and had some clothes made and wandered around the old streets before discovering the stunning white sandy beach...it started to rain when we set foot on the beach so we scarpered to Nha Trang where the sun was blazing, the drinks we're cheap (and travellers we're everywhere!) We ended up staying for a week because we we're having so much fun. We'd also bumped into an Irish couple we just couldn't get rid of...Sarah and Ted who we'd first met in the visa office in Hong Kong and then several places in Vietnam! (We ended up staying together for the rest of Vietnam, Cambodia and now Thailand). We hired two (non) Easy Riders (the local motorbike tour guides) for a day trip to the salt mines, some waterfalls (where we we're supposed to swim, but jumping of 6 meter high rocks into unknown water didn't take our fancy when we got there!) and the cities Buddhist Temple and sitting Buddha. The salt mines we're not really in operation because of the time of year but we also went to a salt cooking factory where they refined the salt by cooking it in massive vats in a scorching hot warehouse, it was really cool to see. Another day was spent on an Island water park which was great as we had the whole park to ourselves. We tried out Parascending over the bay - it was really fun but scary when they stopped the boat and we descended towards the deep blue!
After Nha Trang we took off on our own again for a few days to the mountain town of Dalat, it was quaint and kitsch with different coloured buildings and apparently is the Honeymoon destination for the Vietnamese - not sure we appreciated its romantic charm but we had a lovely time all the same! Dalat was also a refuge during the war years of the 60s and 70s due to its remote and difficult location (our bus broke down several times with burst tyres and overheating on the way up!) The highlight for us was the 'Crazy House' Vietnam's answer to Gaudi...a higgeldy piggeldy maze of concrete mastery. Uneven floors, odd shaped rooms and even odder beds all conected to make an Alice in Wonderland style experience.
From Dalat we made our way to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City, a wonderfully vibrant city with lots of sites, the War Memorial museum (truly harrowing) with photo displays, peoples accounts of horrific experiences and a display of weapons and vehicles and some of the prison cells used for interrogation. A visit to the Cu Chi tunnels was enlightening, telling us of the Cu Chi guerrilas who lived beneath ground to hide from the Americans, their intricate maze of tunnels with living quarters, escape routes, secret fresh air holes and kitchen chimneys and booby traps was astounding and very impessive, we had a crawl though a small section of the tunnels and its frightening to know that the Cu Chi guerillas spent weeks at a time in these tiny spaces.

So thats Vietnam in a nutshell, we're onto Cambodia next so keep an eye on the blog for further tales from the travelling two.

Lots of Love xxxxx